Wow, that's a lot of military parade for the hippie peacenik religion Jesus founded. It must be heartwarming for Catholics to know that their religious donations are being spent on mercenaries with automatic weapons. Come to think on it, you'd think Catholicism would be on the rise in America for that reason alone.

The CNN.com guy left his mic on. Got to hear the production manager talking with someone named Emma about how "the last announcement with Ratzinger was in Latin, so it's important that someone knows it."

robsul82:The CNN.com guy left his mic on. Got to hear the production manager talking with someone named Emma about how "the last announcement with Ratzinger was in Latin, so it's important that someone knows it."

The Beeb covered that 10 minutes ago, about how they need to be quick on the translation.

I am not one to get stage fright...that being said...I do not know if I would want to go up, live...in front of all those people and the world. I mean, there are literally hundreds of millions of people watching this, perhaps even a couple billion....

durbnpoisn:Edwardo17: durbnpoisn: Good. Can we just get over this already?

Speaking as a non-Catholic, I find it completely absurd that the news media is portraying this as some sort of gigantic event for all of humanity. My coffee will still taste the same tomorrow... In other words, it means less than nothing to me.

Also speaking as a non-Catholic; the fact that you happen to think that it's not a big event says nothing about whether or not is actually is a major event. The Catholic Church is one of the largest, oldest, and most influential organizations in the history of civilization. Period. There are over 1.2 billion Catholics, and over 400,000 priests in the Church - not including the monastic orders, lay orders, and other affiliated organizations. The Pope has a remarkable amount of influence in the doctrinal decisions of the church, and church policy influences state policy in dozens of nations all over the world. The political and theological positions of the next pope will help to shape the church's stance on contraception, abortion, the status of women, and a host of other social and theological issues for the next several decades at least.

You can think it's absurd; you're free to feel that it means nothing to you. But let's be honest; the election of a new pope isa big deal.

I understand you're (and every one else's) point on this. But let's also be honest about this... There are almost 4.5 billion people that couldn't care less about the Pope or what what he has to say. Thusly why I think it's so absurd that people think the world is going to change.

So, in response to the other person condemiing my coffee analogy... If best Korea attacked any country in the world, THAT would be a world changing event. Because the response could almost certainly start a very large war.

I hear you, but consider this: 6.5 billion humans aren't Americans and yet many of them care who is elected President. Sure, the president has nukes at his disposal, but even if he didn't, his actions have an effect that ripples out far beyond the borders of his country. The church is the same; when healthcare debates pop up in the United States, the Church has a representative there; when anti-HIV/AIDS groups in Africa engage in their work, they run headlong into the Church. The Church runs hospitals, schools, universities, orphanages; just about any social service you can imagine, and all of them are, to some extent, bound by the dictates of Rome.

The Church is a funky sort of political animal; it has little physical might, yet it continues to wield massive influence - even in institutions like the UN, where it has 'official observer' status. The election of a new pope is a rarer event than the election of a new national leader, and it has the added effect of having ramifications in just about every single nation on earth where more than a few thousands Catholics live.